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You've nearly got it all wrong. That's the message from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In July, the Bay State's House passed a resolution in support of efforts to have independent safety assessments conducted at nuclear power plants in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. In addition, resolved the House, the NRC needs to establish "strong procedures and regulations to mandate safe storage and transportation of nuclear waste."

Cooling tower leakage forces power reduction BRATTLEBORO - There are more problems with the cooling towers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. Entergy Nuclear officials announced Wednesday they had been forced to cut power production at the Vernon reactor to about 55 percent because of new problems with one of the plant's two cooling towers. The company said a packing material used in the expansion joints in the piping in the east tower had sprung a leak in three different locations, leaking a total of 60 gallons a minute.

Entergy Nuclear officials said Thursday inspectors have found additional "degraded" support beams in Vermont Yankee's east cooling tower. Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said a total of five cracked or broken columns have been discovered since the tower was pulled offline Tuesday night, when three leaks were found in a pipe carrying water from the Connecticut River. Williams said repairs were under way, and two of the five beams had already been replaced. "The tower work is nearing completion," he said.

The cooling system at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has sprung another leak - the third in just over a year. Plant officials say an expansion joint that carries water to the east cooling tower leaked more than 60 gallons of water a minute. The plant cut its power output in half while the problem was fixed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded that the likelihood of a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant could cause a severe accident is "remote and speculative." The NRC made that determination in denying a request that it reevaluate the way it reviews the dangers of spent fuel storage at nuclear power plants. Spent fuel pools in power plants such as Vermont Yankee in Vernon are contained within the reactor building, which is designed to withstand "external events, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, fires and floods," wrote the three-member commission that oversees the NRC.

Once again, (or should I just say as usual?), we, the public, as represented by the newly appointed Citizens Oversight Panel chosen to inspect Vermont Yankee in a thorough and independent manner before Entergy is relicensed for 20 more years, are about to be betrayed by the Department of Public Service.

Neglected maintenance on the brakes on a Vermont Yankee refueling floor crane failed in May as it was holding a cask full of spent nuclear fuel because Entergy Nuclear failed to correct ongoing problems with the crane, a recently released inspection report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated. The crane has accumulated seven problems in more than three years, a result of "Entergy's failure to take timely and appropriate corrective action," the special inspection report stated.

The oversight panel, whose task is to review an audit for Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, wants to know how Entergy's management style and philosophy is affecting operations at the power plant in Vernon. To get to the heart of that matter, the oversight panel is asking that whichever contractor is assigned to conduct the review of Yankee also look at the operations of similar plants around the nation to see how the power plant in Vernon stacks up.

Radiation levels rise in reactor building VERNON -- About a dozen workers in the reactor building at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant were evacuated Tuesday around noon because of a doubling of radiation levels in a portion of the plant, Entergy officials said late Tuesday. The higher radiation levels were the result of human error, they said, in changing a filter in the reactor's cooling system. There were no radioactive releases to the environment and the problem did not affect the operation of the plant nor its power production, according to Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has approved the transfer of operating licenses for the FitzPatrick, Indian Point Units 2 and 3, Palisades, Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee nuclear power plants from owner Entergy Corp. to new owner Enexus Energy Corporation. The transfer also covers the licenses for the permanently shut down Indian Point Unit 1 and the independent spent fuel storage installation at Big Rock Point. The staff's approval of the transfer is effective July 28.

As David vs. Goliath confrontations go, the one that unfolded last week at the Atomic Safety Licensing Board hearings ranks right up there. Advertisement The issue before the board, meeting inside the quaint Windham County Superior Court building, was whether the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is ready and able to deal with aging component problems should the facility win permission to stay in operation until 2032.

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is releasing 30 percent more radiation into the environment since it boosted power production by 20 percent two years ago, according to a study from the Department of Health released Friday.\n\nThe increase in radiation is larger than what was expected, according to William Irwin, radiological health safety chief for the health department, but is still within state limits.

Vermont Yankee's steam dryer has withstood the additional stress from a 20 percent jump in power production despite developing an increasing number of cracks, Entergy engineers told a panel from the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Wednesday. And if the steam dryer was going to show serious problems, as it has at other, similar nuclear power plants which have increased power production, it would have by now, Larry Lukens, an Entergy Nuclear engineer, said.

Independent gubernatorial candidate Anthony Pollina is criticizing the Douglas administration for allowing more radioactivity to escape from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. A state report issued last week said radiation from the plant had increased by about 30 percent since it was allowed to increase its power output 20 percent two years ago.

Problems with broken wooden timbers continue to plague Vermont Yankee's cooling towers, as Entergy Nuclear was forced Friday to cut power production in half. According to a preliminary report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, engineers found timber support problems first in the east cooling tower and then in the west tower, including the same cell that was rebuilt last summer after it collapsed.

MONTPELIER - The future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has been one of the most controversial issues in the state. But a bill signed by Gov. James Douglas on Friday establishes the criteria for an inspection of the plant that both sides seem able to live with. The bill is a preparation for next year, when lawmakers may exercise their chance to vote on whether the plant should be allowed to continue operating. The creation of an inspection standard and process raises the stakes for both supporters and opponents of the plant.

VERNON - Workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant are taking additional precautions when working around a 97-ton cask filled with high-level radioactive waste after a crane moving the cask malfunctioned last week. The cask still isn't in its final steel and concrete shroud or storage location, although its first shroud does protect workers from potentially deadly doses, a spokesman from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.

BRATTLEBORO -- It's been 10 months since Environmental Court Judge Merideth Wright heard testimony related to the water temperature of the Connecticut River just below Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Did the Agency of Natural Resources err when it approved a permit allowing the heated water flowing out of the plant to raise the overall temperature of the river by 1 degree?

(Host) Legislative leaders have picked a nuclear engineer and a veteran utility regulator for a panel that will oversee the inspection of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. But the Douglas Administration immediately criticized the appointments. The administration complains that the two are critics of nuclear power.

Vermont Yankee's affable radio jingle is nothing more than malignant propaganda, shrink-wrapped in jovial soliloquy and mellifluous melody. It seems the purveyors of nuclear monoliths seek to trick the public into appreciating actinides (that are responsible for long-term radiation in spent fuel) as they mutate and decay the fabric of life -- if not for thousands of years, billions of years.